Samsung introduces KNOX 2.0, brings app marketplace to enterprises

Galaxy S5 from Samsung
Samsung's latest flagship comes with KNOX 2.0

Samsung added a new service called KNOX marketplace to its KNOX entreprise-oriented service. It is essentially a secure, business oriented app store filled with a number of familiar names such as anymeeting or Box.

An app store for business

The Korean company enlisted white-label cloud service specialist AppDirect to provide with the service, an easy win for Samsung but that also means that others are likely to emulate it. Note that there's just under 150 apps available.

As expected, application purchase and download is locked and Active Directory as well as single-sign on are supported. Downloading an app deploys it almost instantly on the Knox container on devices green-lighted for it without the end-user involvement.

Samsung revealed that about 7,000 KNOX-enabled devices are activated every day, that's about one in every 25 devices on which it has been installed. KNOX comes preloaded on tablets and smartphones such as the Galaxy S4, the S4 Mini and the Note 3 and requires Android 4.4 Kitkat.

KNOX goes overdrive

KNOX has been significantly upgraded as well with a slew of new functionalities added earning itself the 2.0 suffix. These include certificate management, VPN+, an enhanced container, an enterprise mobility management as well as consolidated billing.

The announcement comes a day after the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S5 which comes with a fingerprint reader embedded in the home button, a security feature that has some serious enterprise potential; KNOX 2.0 is also preloaded on the S5

Earlier this week, Samsung announced that it was partnering with the Global Enterprise Mobility Alliance as well as Citrix and Zscaler.

Desire Athow
Managing Editor, TechRadar Pro

Désiré has been musing and writing about technology during a career spanning four decades. He dabbled in website builders and web hosting when DHTML and frames were in vogue and started narrating about the impact of technology on society just before the start of the Y2K hysteria at the turn of the last millennium.